At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3, Electronic Arts has announced that Digital Illusion’s Battlefield 3 will hit store shelves on October 25th after three years of development. And in September, pre-order customers will gain entry to a multiplayer beta test that’s sure to be one of the most popular ever considering the massive amounts of hype around the long-awaited follow-up to Battlefield 2.

Accompanying the announcement were three trailers, each highlighting different aspects of the game. The first, shown below, is an eight-minute gameplay demo, showing action from the Thunder Run single-player campaign. To ensure that the action portrayed is as gritty and realistic as possible, DICE has enlisted best-selling author and ex-SAS operative, Andy McNab, who will advise in a general capacity and hopefully point out that weapon brass ejects away from the head, and not towards, as is often seen in other ‘realistic’ games.

For a look at Battlefield 3’s Rush multiplayer mode, head on over to the next page.